Helping the homeless in Worthing in 2019 will be ‘an ongoing battle’

The lives of many homeless people in Worthing have been turned around this year – but continuing to help some of the most vulnerable people in our communities in 2019 will be an ‘ongoing battle’, a charity has said.

For the second part of the Herald and Gazette’s Christmas homelessness campaign, we asked Turning Tides, a charity supporting homeless people in Sussex, about its achievements in 2018 and the challenges it faces next year.

Sue Stevens from Turning Tides said: “We acknowledge that there were some settling in issues with the local community but adjustments have been made and things do seem to be settling down. “This project, as with all our projects, has seen many people make some life changing improvements to their lives.”

“It is inevitable that there will be some effect on our clients,” she said.

“We also know that with the introduction of Universal Credit we will see an increase in the number of people needing our help and add to that the fact that homelessness is growing across the country we know our services are needed more now than ever.”

However, she said: “We are very fortunate to live in an area where a large proportion of the community, including the police, council and other agencies are supportive of our work and are understanding of the issues our clients face.

“Everyone is an individual with his or her own story.

“It is only by working together we can help them change their lives for the better.”